0
0
December 18th. The road from Cuetzalan to Puebla was considerably easier-ish. Still plenty of hair-raising curves that lead directly to a body cast and roads that were originally designed to be a skateboard ramp. So, beyond those little nuances, the road was filled with spectacular sights and exotic flora. We twisted and turned downhill for a hundred and twenty minutes at an average of 18 miles, er, kilometers per hour.
Once the road somewhat flattened out, we entered the double tractor trailer zone. Big rigs out numbered regular folks like us by 12 to 1 and they are aggressive! The semis all contended for the best, supposedly fastest lane position. They were playing Hungry Hungry Hippos on a massive scale on a toll road that was posted at 110 kph but with all this jockeying, the superhighway became jammed and slow. School zone and lower type slow. At times, 12 trucks and one car would do leap-frog passing. A car, (not unlike the one we were driving) would start passing while simultaneously a hungry-hungry semi would pass the car, (not unlike us). This game went on and on, with no true winner for the rest of the road to Puebla.
Finding dinner in Puebla resulted in a lot of cardio. Sharon and I tend to walk a lot in Mexico, which we really ought to reconsider. The cool Chinese stand we ate at last time was now a barbershop. Across the highway walking bridge was some other joint that we found to be nonexistent. Then a half mile along the highway we found some pretty good Japanese.
Lots of folks question, “What? You’re eating Chinese and Japanese in Mexico?” But if you eat tacos and beans for every meal, that equates to eating McDonalds every meal when in the USA. Super-size me proves to be fatal.
The following day we took a self-guided tour through the Downtown Historic District. We never pass up a big ol’ cathedral. There was plenty of hombre watching as we sauntered through the meat markets. Sharon got plenty of picks of brains, chicken necks, pig heads and cow hearts. All the meat people gladly posed for photo ops but were a bit mystified by the gleeful white chick.
We went back to our hotel La Quinta las Palmas for a siesta. When you leave the room for most of the day, we have discovered it is best to close all the drapes. It’s not a privacy thing, but rather a solar meltdown thing. The large windows of our suite (which was a surprising upgrade) all faced West, facing the very active volcano Popocatépetl. The sun overpowered our room’s AC, simulating a walk around the vent of El Popo itself.
After a week in Mexico, it’s time for some “ruffage”. So, for dinner, we (again) walked up the access road from our hotel to a rather fancy Argentinian “Gobs-o-meat” house. The salad was exceptional. The empanadas were questionable. The wine was expensive. The waitstaff challenged us with a stolen Arby’s catch phrase, “We have the meats”. (You must use the Ving Rhames voice when you read that). We declined the cavalcade of carne.
Upon arriving back at our hotel that evening, our delicate Mexican air conditioner had caught up, barely. It’s all okay. We had a bottle of sleep aid at the restaurant and we’re leaving in the morning and setting the controls for the heart of Oaxaca.
what a perfect description of that tall glass building. perfect feliz navidad amigos